


Sunbeam

by ItsaVikingThing



Category: RWBY
Genre: Especially from Yang's POV, F/F, Friendship, Humor, Set early in Volume 2, Some very mild vibes between Yang and Blake, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 05:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14909246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsaVikingThing/pseuds/ItsaVikingThing
Summary: Blake's obsessive investigation into Roman Torchwick and the White Fang lead to a lot of sleepless nights, which leads to a very tired cat faunus.When Blake falls asleep in a sunbeam in Team RWBY's dorm room, her friends decide to help make the experience as restful as possible for her, each in their own particular way.





	Sunbeam

Ruby Rose rushes into her team's dorm room, shoves the door behind her, pauses, gasps, panics, and grabs the edge of the door, narrowly avoiding having it slam shut.

Ruby's in a rush because she's always in a rush. On this particular occasion, though, she's rushing to grab some things she needs for a study session with Weiss, things she forgot to pick up when she went to afternoon classes. 

She pauses because she thought the room would be empty, but in fact, Blake Belladonna is here. 

Ruby _gasps_ because Blake is lying on the floor, curled up in a ball, her head pillowed on her arm, asleep. She's napping in a sunbeam beside a pile of open books, and it is _the cutest thing Ruby's ever seen in her whole entire today_.

She panics when she realises that the door's about to slam. She rushes to grab the door before it does, because, aside from the almost overwhelming cuteness of the moment, Blake's been...pushing herself hard lately. Since their encounter with Roman and the White Fang, Blake's become increasingly withdrawn. She's developed serious bags under her eyes, and she's always yawning, or snapping at her friends when they point out that she's yawning a lot and that she has bags under her eyes.

Ruby's worried about Blake, but she isn't sure how best to help her. But right now, Blake looks like she's at peace, and she's getting the rest she so badly needs, so Ruby decides that the most helpful thing that she can do is to not disturb her. She slips back into the corridor, where she tugs her boots off, leaving them just beside the door. She takes a deep breath, then tiptoes back inside.

Ruby walks as stealthily as she can to her side of the room and collects the books she's almost entirely sure are the ones Weiss said she'll need for later. She begins to sweat due to the intense level of focus required to pick things up without knocking anything else over, not even once. She sighs with relief when she's got the last textbook stashed in her bag.

Ruby's about to retrace her steps when a thought occurs to her. Her Super Secret Emergency Cookie Stash For Emergencies Only is hidden behind a copy of Professor Port's _Hunting Grimm: Seven Practical Techniques Accompanied By A Few Edifying And Entirely Unexaggerated Anecdotes Concerning Their Implementation_. The cookies represent the last of her snack supplies for at least a week, until she gets the next installment of her allowance. But...if anyone's going through some kind of emergency, it's Blake.

Ruby nods, her mouth setting into a determined line. She removes Port's 2,000 page tome from the shelf, arms straining with the effort. Slowly, surely, and very, very quietly, she drops it on her toe.

Ruby stuffs the corner of her cape into her mouth before she allows herself to whimper in pain. She eases her foot out from under the crushing weight, takes a few deep breaths, then digs out the box of cookies. Limping only slightly, she carries them over to her teammate. She deposits them in a patch of shadow above Blake's head, so that there's no danger of the chocolate chips melting.

She bites her lip, considering the pile of history and politics books beside Blake, which is all she seems to read lately. Ruby shakes her head. She makes one more stealthy trip to her bookshelf and back.

When she's done, Ruby smiles down at her friend. She whispers, "Sleep well!"

She decides it's really time to leave. Instead, she stays put and pulls out her scroll.

Ruby stares at the scroll in consternation. "No, no, no! She's so cute like this, but it would be wrong to take a picture!"

Ruby activates her scroll's camera function.

"I can't! It's still a secret she's a cat faunus! If someone saw this picture and figured it out..." Ruby's thumb hovers over the picture button. She shakes her head frantically. "And it's probably weird to take pictures of your sleeping friends! There's probably a rule. Oh, I wish I'd had more friends so I knew if there was a rule! Or that I'd read the Beacon Academy Code of Conduct, like Weiss told me to. There's bound to be something in there about this sort of thing. No. I can't...I won't! No matter how cute she is, I...must...be...strong. Be strong, Ruby! Beeeee sssssstrong!"

She looks down, resolved to put her scroll away, and discovers that, while she was arguing with herself, she's already taken a dozen shots of her napping friend.

"Eeep!"

Ruby vanishes in a red streak, tearing out of the room and leaving a trail of rose petals beside Blake, who sleeps right through it all.

* * *

Five minutes later, Weiss goes into her room and immediately spots Blake asleep on the floor. She closes the door silently behind her, frowning when she sees the fresh rose petals on the carpet. She pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs.

She's already running late for her study session because she got ambushed by Jaune bearing a wilted posey and babbling about going to see a play together. Dealing with _that_ took up far too much time, but Weiss feels entirely justified in using every single expression she knows for saying 'no' to Jaune, in a tirade which lasted almost eight minutes with only the briefest of pauses for breath.

And she had to come back to her room, because she has to pick up extra copies of all the study materials Ruby's inevitably going to forget. It's almost impressive that Ruby always brings the exact _number_ of books that she'll need, but she almost always brings exactly all the wrong ones. And _on top of that_ , she now has to deal with Blake, who looks more peaceful than she has in weeks, curled up, twitching gently, her expression so carefree in the gentle glow of a sunbeam.

Weiss is annoyed that she can't risk grumbling out loud about how annoyed she is at her inconvenient teammates.

She walks to the corner of the room and faces the window, putting Blake between her and it. She makes a frame with her fingers, squints through it, and makes some quick calculations. Then she walks around Blake, taking pains to ensure not only that she does so as silently as she can, but that her shadow doesn't fall over the sleeping faunus' face. When she reaches the window, Weiss begins to methodically clear a section of the books piled up on top of the shelves whose spines jut up over the windowsill. She places the books on her bed, spreading them out to minimise the risk of making a noise.

Once she's satisfied that she's removed all the obstacles that might cast a shadow over Blake as the sun sinks, Weiss fetches her mirror and places it on the bookshelf, angling it so that it will reflect the sinking sun to give Blake a few more moments of warmth and comfort before night falls.

When that's done, Weiss collects what she needs, and prepares to leave. She pauses on her way out when she spots a box of cookies and a small heap of well-thumbed comics near Blake's head.

That's so obviously Ruby Rose: not _practical_ , but...incredibly sweet.

Weiss begins to smile, but stops, and scowls instead. She decides that it's...irritating that Ruby would leave something for Blake, because it obliges Weiss to do so, too. She sighs, and goes to her footlocker. She opens it and takes out a bottle of water and a packet of dried peach slices she has to keep hidden from the All-Devouring Ruby. She grips the hilt of Myrtenaster, focuses her will, and freezes the water solid. She places the bottle and the fruit beside Ruby's cookies. If Weiss' calculations are correct--and how could they be anything other than?-- the water will have thawed out by the time the sun's gone down, but should still be chilled when Blake wakes up.

Weiss nods, satisfied. She waves goodbye to Blake, and silently leaves her dorm. She picks up Ruby's abandoned boots on her way out, too, and makes sure there's no hint of a smile on her face by the time she reaches the end of the corridor.

* * *

Yang jogs across the courtyard, making for her dorm building. Her school day is finally, _finally_ finished, and she's looking forward to having some quality no pants time when she gets back to what should be an empty bedroom.

Ruby and Weiss are going to be in the library for at least an hour, and--if previous study sessions are anything to go by--Weiss will complain bitterly and at length while letting herself be easily talked into buying Ruby treats afterwards. Yang pushes open the door to the dorm building, grinning. "Kinda turning into the Ice _Cream_ Queen, Weiss. At least, you are around Ruby."

Her grin fades as she climbs the stairs and her thoughts turn to her other teammate. Blake isn't around so much these days. She's always sneaking into town, or hiding in a quiet corner of the library. Yang's been hoping that Blake would adjust, that she'd realise that she's running herself into the ground, but no such luck. Yang's beginning to get worried about the depth of Blake's Roman obsession, but...today's been a loooong day, filled with boring classes in stifling lecture theatres, and Yang's in need of some relaxation. She's selfish enough to be grateful that she'll have some time to herself this evening.

Time in which she will most definitely _not_ be wearing pants.

It's maybe a little weird, then, that when Yang discovers Blake lying asleep on their bedroom floor, she doesn't feel even slightly disappointed. If anything, she feels relief that Blake's getting some kind of rest.

She feels something else, something that's every bit as warm as the sunlight that brushes its soft fingers across Blake's skin, waking her beauty even as it lulls her to sleep.

That's the sort of thought that should probably give Yang pause, but Yang's usually pretty good at finding the nearest thing that will give her an excuse to _unpause_ and get moving away from troubling thoughts as quickly as possible. 

In this case, she finds an excuse in the form of a box of cookies and an icy bottle of water.

Yang grins, feeling a swell of pride for Ruby and Weiss. "Good work, kids," she murmurs. 

She taps her chin, thinking about what she can do while carefully not looking at Blake's face. She's slightly nervous about the way that adjectives like 'cute' and 'lovely' and 'beautiful' keep springing to mind whenever Yang _does_ look at her teammate these days.

Blake's appearance used to be a simple fact that Yang was aware of, but now she's beginning to see that there are endless nuances to Blake's beauty, from the purple flecks in her amber eyes, to the flowing waves of her hair, to all the little details that make her uniquely _Blake_ , and...

And Yang really needs to change the direction of her thoughts.

Yang decides to take action, _any_ action. She jogs to her bunk and grabs her favourite blanket. She creeps over to Blake's side, and drapes the blanket over her body. She barely resists the sudden impulse to tuck Blake in and kiss her forehead, the way she used to do with Ruby, when her half-sister was even tinier and Yang had understood that both their mothers were gone, and someone had to step up.

Here and now, Yang steps back. She pilfers a couple of Ruby's cookies, reasoning that there are more in the box than Blake will want to eat. She doesn't have a particularly sweet tooth, Yang's noticed. She retreats to her bunk, where she snags some notes she should probably review and her now fully recharged scroll on which she'll almost certainly play games instead.

Armed with everything she'll need to keep herself occupied for the time being, Yang leaves the room. In the corridor, she carefully closes the door, then sits cross-legged on the floor, leaning her back against the wood. Yang loads up her favourite fighting game, ready to remain on guard for as long as it takes to make sure that Blake's sleep is undisturbed.

Even if it does mean she'll have to keep her pants on the entire time.

* * *

Blake wakes up to a dark, quiet room. Old habits take hold of her. She lies still, keeping her breathing slow and even, and takes a few seconds to listen and to look around through her narrowed eyes before she uncurls herself, and rolls onto her back.

Her first thought is that she's alone, which brings a brief sense of relief, until she wakes up a little more and she feels an unexpected sting of _loneliness_. 

Her second thought is that she's slept for nearly two hours, when she was supposed to be researching the White Fang. That's wasted time she can't afford, that nobody can afford, even if she is the only one who seems to realise how grave the threat Roman's alliance with the White Fang is. Her teammates certainly don't seem to realise quite how urgent the situation is. If the they did, surely one of them might have at least _tried_ to wake her, assuming any of them passed through their room in the last couple of hours.

At that point, several other things Blake's been peripherally aware of push themselves to the forefront of her mind. There are the rose petals, fading but still fragrant, in a heap by her head and trailing past the length of her body. And above her head, beside the petals, are a box of Ruby's cookies, a stack of her comics, a packet of Weiss' dried fruit and a bottle of water.

Blake sits up and takes the water. She drinks thirstily, finding it perfectly chilled. When she's drunk half the bottle, Blake lowers it into her lap and runs her hand over the soft yellow blanket that's bunched up over her legs. She finds an unwilling smile on her face.

She decides that she was wrong to think herself alone in this room, just because she's the only person currently in it.

Her smile fades. The fact that her...friends are trying to look out for her just means she has to work harder. She must not be a burden to them.

Blake stands up, stretches, and finishes the water. She picks up Yang's blanket, shakes it out, folds it neatly, and returns it to Yang's bed. She gravely considers the snacks left by Ruby and Weiss, and finally settles on taking one cookie and one slice of peach. She eats them mechanically, without much enthusiasm for their flavour, though she does appreciate the clash of textures. 

She realises the extent of her mistake only when her stomach growls, insistent on being filled. Blake groans and rubs her face. "A quick break...down to the refectory and straight back."

But her plan is disrupted when she finds Yang sitting in front of the doorway, blocking the corridor. She tips her head back and smiles up at Blake as soon as she opens the door.

"You're awake! Good sleep?"

"I...guess. Yes. Um...thank you for the blanket. Although-"

Yang thrusts her scroll up towards Blake's face. "Wanna get your butt whooped at _Ultimate Aura Smashers 3: The Wreckoning_?"

"That...is widely regarded as the most ultimate of all the _Aura Smashers_ , but I'm...a little busy."

For a second, Yang's violet eyes seem to darken a fraction. But then she jumps to her feet, spins around to face Blake, and leans forward, propping an arm against the doorframe. "In that case, wanna go grab some food before the kids get back?" 

It's on the tip of Blake's tongue to say no, but then Yang grins at her, the way only Yang can: warm, wide, and inviting. 

Blake folds her right arm around her waist, cupping her left elbow. "Uh, Ruby is our leader and Weiss is our age." 

Yang's grin widens. "Ruby is forever and always my li'l sis, and Weiss is seventeen in _heiress_ years! I mean, remember how confused she was that first time in the refectory?" Yang puts on a high, nasal voice. "'What do you _mean_ it's self-service? When do the butlers and waiters get here?'" 

"She wasn't that bad!" Blake pauses, thinking back. "Well, maybe she was about 80% that bad...didn't she ask where the rest of her cutlery was when you brought her a knife and fork?" 

"She did!" Yang laughs, and tension she wasn't even aware of eases out of Blake's body. "She had no idea she was only getting one course! See what I mean? Heiress years definitely count for less than normal people years!" 

"You think _we_ are normal people?" 

It comes out sharp, barbed, and not at all like Blake intended. 

Yang's grin doesn't falter, and if anything her voice softens. "I think we're as close as it gets in an academy for Grimm hunters, Blake." 

And Blake isn't sure what to say, and suddenly it's scary, being alone and this close to Yang. Not a _bad_ scary, but...the way Yang's grinning, how close she's standing, the look in her half-lidded violet eyes...Blake doesn't have a book to hide behind, and she doesn't have a line of retreat.

Silence falls on them. Yang's grin fades, but she doesn't speak, and she doesn't look away. Unsure of what to say or do, Blake is caught in a strangely weighted moment, staring mutely into Yang's eyes. 

Until her stomach rumbles again. 

Yang laughs, and whatever tension was building between them dissipates. "Okay, I don't need hearing as good as yours to catch that! You're hungry, I'm buying you dinner. End of story." 

Blushing, Blake ducks her head. "I...can hardly say no. But only for a little while, I have some things to catch up on." 

Yang pouts, but reluctantly says, "Fiiiine. Have it your way this time, Blake Belladonna. Next time, though...you're gonna have a whole night of relaxation, even if I have to force it on you!" 

"I'm...not sure you can _force_ someone to relax, Yang." 

"Preeeetty sure I can," Yang says, grabbing Blake's shoulder and hauling her out of their room. She throws a companiable arm around Blake's neck and begins to drag her towards the refectory. "For instance, right now, I'm going to force you to eat a whole lotta tuna!"

"Oh." Saliva floods Blake's mouth. She _really_ hopes she isn't going to start drooling, for several reasons. "Okay, I'll admit...that could work." 

"Heh. Never underestimate my ability to use force for positive ends!" 

"I promise to bear that in mind," Blake says solemnly. 

On the way to the refectory, they run into Ruby and Weiss. Ruby is thrusting a half-eaten ice cream cone at Weiss, who is trying to simultaneously ward Ruby off and protect her sleeves from drops of melting ice cream. 

Pleadingly Ruby says, "But if you won't even try it, you won't know that strawberry's the best flavour!" 

"How can you still be struggling to grasp the concept that I don't want to try _anything_ that's been licked, Ruby Rose! _Especially_ by you!" Weiss relaxes slightly when a crestfallen Ruby retracts her deadly strawberry cone weapon. "Besides...mint is clearly superior in every way!" 

"Nah," Yang declares loudly. She grabs Blake's hand and hustles her over to the rest of their teammates. "You're both crazy! Chocolate Fudge Brownie is the definitive ice cream!"

Yang nudges Blake, so she quickly says, "Oh! Uh, I like the cold, smooth one?"

They all stare at her. She blushes. "Uh...I, ah, can't really taste sweet things, because...you know." 

Blake points at the ribbon she uses to disguise her cat ears. 

Ruby sways, her face registering blank horror. "You...can't taste sweet things?" 

Blake shrugs. "Only a little bit." 

"Oh, I can't even imagine how terrible that must be..." Ruby sighs. Then she shakes herself and smiles broadly up at Blake. "Um, I hope you had a good nap!" 

Weiss just sniffs and nibbles daintily at her mint ice cream. But she's watching Blake carefully, and Blake's spent enough time with Weiss to see the concern in her eyes. 

"I'm fine," Blake says. And right now, she means it. "Thanks for...looking out for me." 

Ruby smiles. "Of course! You're our friend!" 

"And teammate," Weiss adds. 

"And we know you've got our backs, too," Yang concludes. "Right partner?" 

Blake meets her violet eyes and nods, more determined than ever not to let these girls down. "Right." 

Yang says, "Then let's get some food! And then, how about some... _Ultimate Aura Smashers_ , tournament style?" 

Ruby clenches her fist. "I will be the wreckoning of all your auras! When this night is done, legends will be told of the wreckonage I made of you all!" 

Weiss sniffs. "Is this that dumb fighting game with the bad controls?" 

"The one you always lose at?" Yang says, smirking. "Uh huh!" 

"Well," Weiss says, examining her perfect, shiny nails. "I _suppose_ I could give it another shot." A terrible gleam fills her eyes. "Especially since I bought every available strategy guide and memorised every move set! I will build an eternal empire on the remains of your smashed auras, you simpering fools! Ahahaha!" 

Yang laughs. "Okay, so _she's_ in! C'mon, Blake! We can't have a proper tournament without you!" 

Blake hesitates. She has so many other things she _needs_ to do. She really can't afford these sorts of distractions. She steels herself against Ruby's pleading look, and says, "I-" 

Yang cuts her off, saying, "I'll make sure you have fun, Blake. Promise." 

She grins at Blake, and at that point, how can Blake refuse? It's impossible to resist Yang's grin: it is as warm and tempting as a sunbeam. 

Blake bows to all of her friends. "It will be my honour to smash your auras into tiny pieces." 

Yang winks at her, and Blake smiles back. 

For the rest of that night, at least, Blake is able to bask in the feeling of being surrounded by the people she cares for, and who care for her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, folks!
> 
> I'm still getting my bearings here, so I'd appreciate your feedback! Especially when it comes to the girls' ice cream flavours... :)


End file.
